DOWN GOES #1! Marquette Men’s Soccer Beats Top Ranked Georgetown

Well, hell, I should have gone down to the Valley after the volleyball ended on Saturday night.

I elected to go home after not properly planning to spend an hour plus in 45 degree weather down by the river, and watched the second half of Marquette men’s soccer against #1 Georgetown on FloFC. It’s the regular season finale for Marquette and the Golden Eagles needed a win to just stay alive for the conference tournament and hope to get help to put them in.

And so, the soccer gods punished me for not being there by rewarding AJ Franklin, Chandler Hallwood, coach Louis Bennett, and the entire Marquette men’s soccer roster.

In the 86th minute, Franklin took in a long field flipping pass, pushed forward, drew two defenders, split said defenders, and rifled a shot into the net past Georgetown keeper Luca Ulrich for a 1-0 lead.

Neat, huh?

Yeah, it was neat.

FOR EIGHTEEN WHOLE SECONDS UNTIL THE REFEREE BLEW HIS WHISTLE AND RULED A FOUL ON CHRISTIAN MARQUEZ OCCURRED INSIDE THE BOX AND AWARDED THE HOYAS A PENALTY KICK

Yep. 18 seconds after the restart following Franklin’s goal. NOT COOL, MARQUETTE. NOT COOL, REFEREE, especially if that foul did in fact happen outside the box because the replay definitely made it look like it did.

Anyway, it turns out that Ball Don’t Lie translates to the pitch, as Chandler Hallwood earns the Sam Cassell Cojones Trophy for the night for not only stopping Dante Polvara’s penalty kick but for also stopping a rebound shot attempt by the Hoyas whilst still laying on the ground after saving the PK. Eventually it went out for a goal kick, and finally, the Golden Eagles could go about frittering away the rest of the clock to secure the win.

Full time: Marquette 1, #1 Georgetown 0. It is the first win over a #1 ranked opponent in program history. MU had lost their previous two attempts to knock off the top team in the country in the 58 year history of the program.

Here’s the really wild part: Marquette still has not clinched a Big East tournament berth! The Golden Eagles are done for the regular season with the other 10 members of the Big East all facing off against each other on the final match day of the season on Wednesday. MU is currently in a four way tie for fourth place in the Big East with 13 points, which means that tied group covers 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th place. Only the top six teams in the conference qualify for the tournament and MU is the only one locked into the 13 points. Villanova, Butler, and Creighton are all playing different teams on Wednesday, but the one that Marquette is particularly concerned about it Creighton. MU beat the Bluejays earlier this season while they lost to the Wildcats and the Bulldogs. If it comes down to just Marquette and Creighton for the sixth and final spot, then the Golden Eagles win on the tiebreaker.

And so, we wait to see what happens while celebrating the biggest regular season win in program history......